Investigating language learning and morphosyntactic transfer longitudinally using artificial languages

The present materials are part of a study in progress.

The materials for the lab-based sessions, including their preparation, are available in the folder "L3_transfer_longitudinal.zip". Please read the README files therein, and feel free to contact us with any questions.

Abstract

The acquisition of a third language (L3) often involves the transfer of morphosyntactic structures from the first language and/or the second language to the developing L3 grammar, allowing the recycling of relevant, previously acquired knowledge (Rothman et al., 2015). Assuming some systematicity in this crosslinguistic influence, much research has investigated the mechanisms involved in selecting a source of transfer given various (competing) options. Experimental studies using artificial languages have allowed researchers to investigate this process from the very onset of L3 acquisition, with some initial findings suggesting a role of attention prior to the selection of a source of transfer (González Alonso et al., 2020; Pereira Soares et al., 2022). The current study examines morphosyntactic transfer longitudinally in two sites. In Norway, participants are randomly assigned to training and testing in Mini-Norwegian or Mini-English. In Spain, Mini-Spanish is used instead of Mini-Norwegian. The study comprises six sessions. Session 1 consists of an assessment of attention-related executive functions and a language history questionnaire. A week later, Session 2 begins with a resting-state EEG measurement—predictive of attention (Rogala et al., 2020)—, and the rest is devoted to the grammatical property of gender agreement (part of Norwegian and Spanish grammars). A week later, Session 3 adds the property of differential object marking (part of Spanish grammar, absent in the other two languages). A week later, Session 4 adds the property of verb-object agreement (absent from the English, Norwegian and Spanish grammars). The grammar part in Sessions 2, 3 and 4 consists of a vocabulary pre-training, a training in the new grammatical property, a behavioural test, and an electroencephalography experiment measuring event-related potentials (ERPs) in response to grammatical and ungrammatical instances of each property. A week after Session 4, Session 5 provides a retest of the cognitive battery from Session 1. Last, after a consolidation period of four months, all grammatical properties are retested in Session 6 (see Morgan-Short et al., 2012). Our analyses will delve into language learning, morphosyntactic transfer, and their associations with executive functions.

References

González Alonso, J., Alemán Bañón, J., DeLuca, V., Miller, D., Pereira Soares, S. M., Puig-Mayenco, E., Slaats, S., & Rothman, J. (2020). Event related potentials at initial exposure in third language acquisition: Implications from an artificial mini-grammar study. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 56, 100939. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneuroling.2020.100939

Morgan-Short, K., Finger, I., Grey, S., & Ullman, M. T. (2012). Second language processing shows increased native-like neural responses after months of no exposure. PLOS ONE, 7(3), e32974. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032974

Pereira Soares, S. M., Kupisch, T., & Rothman, J. (2022). Testing potential transfer effects in heritage and adult L2 bilinguals acquiring a mini grammar as an additional language: An ERP approach. Brain Sciences, 12(5), Article 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12050669

Rogala, J., Kublik, E., Krauz, R., & Wróbel, A. (2020). Resting-state EEG activity predicts frontoparietal network reconfiguration and improved attentional performance. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 5064. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61866-7

Rothman, J., Alemán Bañón, J., & González Alonso, J. (2015). Neurolinguistic measures of typological effects in multilingual transfer: Introducing an ERP methodology. Frontiers in Psychology, 6. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01087
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